Lee Davis, The Last of Us II’s UFC-inspired combat animator (Action Talks #7)

Lee Davis is a game character animator known for heading the melee combat animation team in The Last of Us II, as well animator on Uncharted 4. We talk about how animation works in combat games and what he looks for in a motion capture performer. You can see his Moby Games profile here: Edited by Julia Bresnan Timestamps: 0:00:28 Early inspiration 0:04:30 Start of Lee’s professional career 0:05:45 Standing out to employers as an animator 0:06:48 Going from live action to animation 0:10:14 What he looks for in a motion capture performer 0:13:17 How he gets the perfect motion capture take 0:16:03 Animating synced combat attacks 0:22:21 Getting inspired by the UFC 0:26:35 His changing views on fighting 0:29:14 More advice for motion capture performers 0:32:57 How posing works in 3D animation 0:36:35 Timing animated combat 0:39:22 US vs Japanese animation 0:41:39 US vs. Japanese 3D animation #tlou2 #mocap #motioncapture #animation